The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived

A True Story of My Family

Author and journalist Tom Shroder has made a career of investigative journalism and human-interest stories, from examining the claims of children who appear to remember previous lives for his book Old Souls, to chronicling an Iraq war veteran's near fatal struggle with PTSD and the psychedelic drug treatments that saved him in his most recent, Acid Test. Shroder's most fascinating reporting, however, comes from within his own family - his grandfather, MacKinlay Kantor, was world-famous in the 1950s and 1960s for his seminal Pulitzer-winning novel of the Civil War, Andersonville. As a child, Shroder was in awe of the larger-than-life character. Kantor's friends included Ernest Hemingway, Carl Sandberg, Gregory Peck, and James Cagney. He was an early mentor to John D. MacDonald, and 'discovered' the singer Burl Ives. He wrote the novel Glory for Me, which became the multi-Oscar-winning film The Best Years of Our Lives. He also ghostwrote General Curtis LeMay s memoirs, penning the infam